TALBOT358

Florence

July 16

My dear Henry –

You are tiresome – you could not surely suspect me of confounding O. narbonense ¹ with pyrenaicum which grows in Somersetshire, it is pyramidale that I take to be the same as Narbonense.

I went yesterday with Raddi ² to spend the day at Monte <Senacio?>, on a hill above Pratolino, we found Carduus eriophorus, Dianthus plumarius, from which our garden pinks come, a Scutellaria which looks almost like an aconite, a woolly stachys with prickly calyx, carduus nutans, centaurea <calistrapa?>, Jasione montana very large, Scabiosa integrifolia, tenuifolia & arvensis very fine purple – O. nidus avis ³ – Lilium Croceum very fine – Malva moschata – rosa collina – Euphrasia officinalis – Polygala rosea, cærulea, flava, will that please you – Campanula rapunculus, trachelium, persicifolia extremely large – a simple leaved bushy genista with hairy pods no thorns – sedum reflexum, dasyphyllum, & another quite new – with white flowers & leaves in whirls. Prunella vulgaris blue, laciniata very large, white, lilac or blue, Vicia pisiformis, cracca, pseudocracca & sepium – Lathyrus latifolius – pratensis. Delphinium consolida, Xeranthemum inapertum – Dorycnium herbaceum Prenanthes purpurea & muralis, Sedum telephium Melittis melissophyllum, melissa calaminthe, & there is a very pretty walk to some holy grots & cells on the side of a steep woody mountain looking to the Apennines – we saw at a considerable distance below us a large patch of orange which we took for lilies – but the place was not accessible however we got near enough to see it was Hemerocallis fulva on the ridge of a hill branching off from the M^te Senacio or Asinacio (should it not have been Ponte?) is Asphodelus ramosus var: non ramosus, spicâ simplici flore majore ⁴– There is a fine wood of silverfir <sic> which they call here Abies & I suppose was the Abies of the Romans. on the rocks Saxifraga rotundiflora foliis crassionibus – Serapias latifolia – Veronica officinalis – & melampyrum arvense & Nemorosum of which last as you never met & it is not to be seen in England I send you a bit in hopes it will not be quite spoilt before it reaches you – but it is not so fine or so abundant as in the north – Its coma is not so cærulea ⁵ & the spike is too lax. There were Convall. polygonatum & Raddi has seen there Fumaria cava & Doron. Padalian The Oleanders here delight me Raddi has seen Melastomas as large & handsome. – Do you know Euphorbia Portlandica Pityusa – It must have been ceratocarpa with entire petals tho Viviani ⁶ calls them setigerous – do you know that pretty Camp. lanuginosa – your specimen of Portlandica never came does it signify in Euphorbias if they have all their flowers in a top umbel or up the stalk like Characias?

I have got the Shakspeare by the new Attaché ⁷ this moment – I send you a Sy<illegible> do you know Dana aquilegifolia

Henry Talbot Esq
31 Sackville Street

I send C. lanuginosa – I have an idea cyclamen & Asarum must be allied & thereby <illegible> Aristolochiæ <Arouleæ?> & Orchideæ –

Do you know Delph. Sinense it is the finest blue I ever saw – I am disappointed in Sedum cæruleum it is too straggling like galiodes – on its Corsican rocks it may look better there is a blue one in Siberia but I dont know what like